Salaverry’s Last Stand?

To say Ivan Salaverry has seen a lot in MMA would be a massive understatement. When he began fighting in 1999, the sport was still outlawed in many states and the UFC was on financial life support. Fast forward to 2008, MMA is now the fastest growing sport in the world, guys like Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell are household names and the UFC is making money hand over fist. While the sport has changed, the Seattle based Salaverry has remained the same grounded, humble and well rounded fighter that won over many fans. I recently had a chance to speak with Ivan, as he prepares for what could be his last professional fight, at UFC 84: Ill Will. The 12-5 Salaverry will take on the highly regarded Rousimar Palhares in one of the event’s under card fights.

TK: Thanks for talking with me, how has training been going?
IS: Phenomenal. I had to take some time off after my last fight (a TKO loss to Terry Martin last May) to take care of a few things, but I’ve had a nice little training session and I can’t wait to fight.

TK: Your opponent is a bit of an unknown, but he is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and has a solid 7-1 record, do you have a specific game plan in mind for him or are you sticking with what you’ve always done?

IS: He is obviously a very very good grappler and the number one rated fighter out of Brazil. I always train a good general martial arts base. I do a lot of striking and a lot of grappling. Obviously for Palhares, I’ll try to keep it standing, but if it goes on the ground, I don’t mind. I enjoy the ground. Either way, it doesn’t really matter to me, but the strategy going in; we’re going to keep it up.

TK: How much longer do you plan on fighting professionally?
IS: This is about it brother. I can’t tell you this is it, no more for sure. If someone comes up to me with the right offer, guess what? I’ll be back training again, but I’ve been doing this since 1999 and my priorities have switched over now to my gym and my family. I have two kids and that takes a lot of out you. Before, I could pick up and go train at Team Punishment or in Japan. Now, those things aren’t as easily available to me. I love fighting and I’m not going to say “never.” I really want to start veering into building up my gym within a team aspect. I want to bring MMA into the Seattle scene in a respectable way. I maybe want to promote fights and promote grappling tournaments, things of that nature. I also want to spend a lot of energy on my team and have my guys go on to bigger, better things.

TK: What made you decide to become a pro fighter?
IS: I just immediately fell in love with it. The same fever that’s catching people now? I had that fever 12 years ago. The first UFC was phenomenal. Here was Royce Gracie, a skinny little guy that looked like my dad, beating giants. Back then, people didn’t see the reality of fighting and thought it was about fancy kung fu moves and holistic martial arts and it really wasn’t. It came down to fundamentals of good grappling and good striking, things like boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Judo. Those to me are realistic striking and grappling arts.

TK: You’ve seen the sport undergo a lot of changes. Talk about some of the biggest changes between the days of Royce Gracie and today.
IS: Elite athletes are now coming into MMA. Guys who are NCAA champions are now also great strikers. Amateur boxers and Golden Gloves champions are now learning to grapple. Fighters now have grown up watching the UFC from 1993 until 2008. Not only the UFC, but PRIDE, Shooto, Pancrase and all the different promotions that they’ve seen and grown to love. Back then, it was martial art versus martial art, now everyone are hybrid fighters, good at everything.

TK: If you had all the power over MMA, what would you do to improve the sport?
IS: I think there needs to be a way to give fighters more leverage in determining their own worth. Promotions are very powerful and can make it hard for the fighters to negotiate. Within that, there needs to be an organization, a situation, some form of representation or union just like any other pro sport. Unless you pay for it on your own, no fighters have medical insurance. You are covered during your fight, but you train three months before that fight! Millions are being paid to these promotions and fighters, if you really break it down, get just a fraction of that. There needs to be a place where we can go, to negotiate our own worth.

TK: You are fighting on a very stacked card, what are your thoughts/predictions for the BJ Penn/Sean Sherk fight?
IS: My favorite is BJ. I just love his style, I think he’s a phenomenal athlete and a freak of nature in grappling. He’s also not afraid to bang, he’s a hard head. I think right now, he’s on a good path. Before, his focus may have veered off a bit, but he’s looked very focused in his last few fights. Sean Sherk is a beast and I won’t take anything away from him, but I’m picking BJ for the win.
TK: Thoughts/predictions for the Keith Jardine/Wanderlei Silva fight?
IS: Wow, that’s a good one. It all depends, if Wanderlei goes out there with the ferocity he showed in PRIDE, then Jardine is going to have a tough time. But Jardine trains hard and is with a very good team down in New Mexico. Wanderlei left his Chute Boxe team in Brazil and is now in Las Vegas and I’m not sure what his training is like now. Based on that, I say Jardine has the edge.
TK: Last, but not least, talk about the fight between your friend/training partner Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida.
IS: My support is absolutely for Tito. I think his style is one of the few styles that might be able to get Machida. Lyoto has an awkward style. He’s got that old Karate style with a very diagonal stance. He’s also no slouch on the ground, has beaten some no joke fighters lately and he’s got a lot of momentum. Tito however, can nullify all of that, if he can bring him down. If he can put him against the cage and throw down punches and elbows, Lyoto’s going to have a tough time.

TK: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
IS: I like to have dinner with my wife bro. I like to chill, go to Alki Beach and just look at Seattle. With my career, family and gym, there’s not time for much else. I live a very fortunate life, so I’m allowed to do, what I love to do.

TK: How do you balance the time between training your students with your own training?
IS: I’ve allotted some of my training sessions/classes over to my better students. That gives me the capability to do my own two-a-day workouts (in the morning and the late evenings). I have a lot of good guys helping me out right now like Brad Blackburn, Shad Lierley, Bristol Marunde, and Maurice Smith. I’ve got a bunch of guys who are helping me become a better fighter and also teaching some of my classes. I think the students here can also appreciate me taking a little time off from teaching so I can fight in the UFC.

TK: How many students do you currently have, what’s the typical class size and what’s the overall feel of the gym?
IS: We have about 170. We have about 20-25 per class. It’s such a great situation. I’m very fortunate that this place took off from the get go. I think Seattle really needed it because all the great MMA schools are outside the city. I just wanted something here and it’s taken off. We have a variety of people who train here including students, business people, women, younger kids, we have it all.

TK: How many of your students are training to become pro-fighters themselves?
IS: Just a handful actually. My gym’s focus is for people who want to do realistic martial arts as a lifestyle, not for competition. My fighters actually come train later at night because I try to separate those animals from the regular folks. What I try to do, is teach regular people the fundamentals of fighting; boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and submission wrestling.

TK: Do you feel a certain responsibility to teach more than just fighting at your gym?
IS: Yes, but only to a certain extent. I’m not a guru or anyone’s sensei, but I do have a certain philosophy that I like to push and that’s to be a good sportsman. Within that scope, I think things settle into being a good person. It’s difficult for someone who works all day, comes in here and trains for 2 hours, to get into a lot of trouble. When you’re working out all your frustrations on the mat or on the bag, then it’s hard to be a mean person when you leave the gym. I’m lucky because almost all my students and training partners are really nice, sweet people.

TK: Any advice for up and coming fighters who want to make fighting a career?
IS: Wow. I’d say have your (expletive) squared. That means you have to have a job that supports all your necessities like food, rent, training, insurance, etc. You need to make sure your base is strong enough to support what you love. If you have rich parents; good for you! If you don’t, you better have a good job that can pay for everything. That’s when you can think about becoming a fighter because fighting doesn’t pay until way later on. You have to literally fight, to get to the point of making money.